July 16, 2011 - Legend Welterweight belt: Bae vs MacSwain

here's MMAcore's upload of the first Legend FC Welterweight title defense, Rod MacSwain versus Bae Myoung Ho. Thomas Fan was the referee for the fight.

Bae vs MacSwain, Part 1

Bae vs MacSwain, Part 2

spoiler, in case you didn't already know:

July 16, 2011 - Legend FC 5 at City of Dreams

Legend Fighting Championship based out of Hong Kong just held their fifth show at the City of dreams in Macau. this event showcased the first round of a four-man featherweight tournamaent, the inaugural bantamweight championship belt and and the first defense of the welterweight belt. you can see a full write-up of the event here. TRIQUEST members Henry, Victor and Andy were on hand as ring staff. once again, Thomas Fan was head referee and Roger Chau stepped on the canvas to ref as well. but... why isn't Andy in this picture?

because he was backstage for the entire afternoon and throughout the event as the glove manager. eighteen fighters to supervise tape and glove... that's a big job!

joining Thomas and Roger in the ring as refs were our friend Warren Wang from Taiwan and Khomkrit "Killer Bee" Niimi, a black belt and amateur MMA ref from California.

Roger in action! this was between Fransino Tirta of Indonesia and Wu Chenjie of China for the first round of the four-man featherweight tournament. Fransino is a remarkable bjj player and Wu is known as a ground-and-pounder, so Roger had his hands full with action both on the mat and striking. the fight went the distance and Tirta won the decision.

Thomas refereed the main event, the first defense of the welterweight belt by Rod MacSwain against the now-famous gregarious Korean Bae Myoung Ho. Rod made a go of striking and ring control through the first round, but in the second Bae came on strong with his first takedown and then repeatedly ground-and-pounded the Kiwi until the end of the third.

Bae was the winner by unanimous decision and claimed the welterweight title belt as his own.

he happens to be my favorite fighter in all of Legend, so i was very eager to congratulate him! i am even more eager to see who will be his first opponent in defense of the belt.

after a busy night, Roger, Thomas and Warren took a rest with the Legend ring girls.

and then we all headed to the Hard Rock's Flame Bar for a much-needed beer before the epic afterparty.